[Infographic] Why Western Companies Fail In China

Businesses large and small looking to penetrate the China market face a daunting task. Aside from the expected differences in business culture and etiquette, there’s also local competition and regulatory issues to deal with.

In fact that challenge has proved too overwhelming for many, even for some of the biggest global brands. Google, for example, entered China in 2005 but found Baidu far too entrenched. Similarly, eBay tried to take on China but Alibaba-owned Taobao understood the Chinese customer better. Home Depot entered China in 2006 but shuttered its operations in 2012.

Here’s an infographic that shows some of the experiences faced by some big US brands that have tried to break into the China market, and looks at some of the reasons why they haven’t quite succeeded as much as they had hoped to:

Daniel Goh is the founder and chief editor of Young | Upstarts, as well as an F&B entrepreneur. Daniel has a background in public relations, and is interested in issues in entrepreneurship, small business, marketing, public relations and the online space. He can be reached at daniel [at] youngupstarts [dot] com.